Jayde Adams: Who is the Strictly Come Dancing 2022 contestant and comedian?

Comedian told The Independent that competing on show was ‘everything I’ve ever worked towards’

It’s time to put on your dancing shoes... Strictly Come Dancing is back for another week.

The hit BBC reality series has a whole new roster of contestants for 2022, including TV presenters, athletes, and pop stars.

You can check out the full line-up here.

Among the lineup of contestants is comedian and actor Jayde Adams. She is coupled up with Karen Hauer.

Born in Bristol, Adams worked as a cabaret artist and Adele impersonator before turning to stand-up comedy.

She is a staple of the Edinburgh Fringe festival, where she recently performed her show Men, I Can Save You. You can read The Independent’s four-star review of the show here.

As an actor, she’s performed in Alma’s Not Normal, while she has a starring role in forthcoming Take That film Greatest Days and has written and starred in her own ITV sitcom Ruby Speaking, out next year.

Growing up, Adams used to compete in freestyle disco dancing competitions with her sister Jenna, who died of a brain tumour in 2011.

Adams and partner Karen Hauer (BBC/Guy Levy)

In a recent interview with The Independent, Adams said that Strictly Come Dancing is “everything I’ve ever worked towards”.

She said that the last time she ever danced was with her sister and that while she knew some Strictly fans may think she has too much dance experience for the show, she no longer had a “dancer’s body” and was prepared for the experience to be hard.

“I just think if Ashley Roberts from The Pussycat Dolls can go on the show, then Jayde Adams can go on it,” Adams said. “It’s gonna be hard work for me as it was for [2020 winner] Bill Bailey.”

Adams and Hauer scored 23 points in the first live show for their Samba to “Dirrty” by Christina Aguilera. In week two, Adams was fifth from the bottom of the leaderboard and in week three, she soared back up to sixth place.

The comedian danced the American Smooth in week four, in tribute to her late sister. Ballas was almost moved to tears by her performance.

Strictly Come Dancing continues nightly on BBC One.